Innholdsfortegnelse for January 2019 i Classic American

The well-known number two Mustang coupe is to be auctioned by Barrett-Jackson at Scottsdale in January, this time without a reserve. This car is the very first Ford Pilot Plant/pre-production Mustang hardtop and was hand-assembled at the Ford Pilot Plant. It is one of three known existing Pilot Plant Mustangs to survive. This very special Mustang has been restored to factory new specifications, with all major components having matching numbers. The car’s very basic specification includes the 170cu in six-cylinder engine mated to a three-speed manual transmission. Included with the first Ford Mustang hardtop is a set of two binders containing ownership and condition affidavits from all previous owners, along with photos, statements and signatures from high-profile originators of the Mustang, including Lee Iacocca, Hal Sperlich, Don Frey, Gale Halderman…

News came last month of a heinous crime at Santa Pod, when it was discovered that the chassis of the iconic ‘Stardust’ Funny Car had been stolen from SPR’s storage facility. Due to be shipped to Sweden for a full restoration, it is not known exactly when it was taken, but it was sometime between July and November. The car was originally built by Don Shumacher, who raced it successfully in the early Seventies Stateside, who then sold it to Santa Pod in 1973. It’s unbelievable to think someone within the sport was involved, but the thieves obviously knew what they wanted, as other expensive machinery was ignored and just the frame stolen. Keith Bartlett, Santa Pod’s owner, has offered a £5000 reward for information leading to its return. Let’s…

While hot rod shop open days and events are popular in the US, we don’t hear of many over here except, that is, for the Chilli Night at Valley Gas Speed Shop. Held on and off for several years now, we’ve managed to make it to most, if not all of them and it’s always a good night. Next year marks the return of the Chilli Night down at the Valley Gas workshops in Andover, Hampshire. Due to its popularity in recent years, owners Jimmy and Ellie Hibberd have decide this year to make it an all-ticket event, and as ever, the proceeds of the event will go to charity. The evening will feature live music, DJs, and burlesque show as usual, as well as Jimmy’s famous chilli! The date…

Where once the sport utility was a niche product that was designed to combine off-road prowess with proper utility, such as the Chevy Blazer or Ford Bronco, today it’s become little more than a family estate car on stilts with roof rails and some form of all-wheel-drive system. Many of today’s SUVs feature unibody construction, front-wheel-drive architecture and can cope with little more than dirt roads when it comes to venturing off the tarmac. Yet the high driving position and the image of the outdoorsy, backwoods, camping lifestyle these things are designed to project seems irresistible, never mind the fact that the blasted thing will get stuck and need to be towed out if you try to take a beauty picture of it on a beach or an earth mound.…

Dear Classic American, At the Bristol American show in the summer, I was admiring a superb ’41 Mercury. The owners had plenty of info displayed (so many contributors fail to provide any info at all, one had to wonder if they don’t like conversation?!) and on the attached brochure page I noticed, bottom right, just one black figure –the only person doing work... loading luggage. Alan Elkan Via email Thanks for this; it’s an interesting observation, perhaps because 30 years later everything had come 360 degrees, at least as far as the depiction of black people in car ads – as black people were now being depicted as customers and consumers in ads!…

Most problems have more than one solution. For General Motors, the problem of what to do about the emerging personal luxury market was solved differently by each division. When we checked out the Pontiac Grand Prix on page 39, we saw how detail changes and better equipment gave an existing model a special identity. But there was another way, and it began with a clean sheet of paper. General Motors dealers had been pleading for a car to match the fashionable Thunderbird since 1958. By the end of the 1960 model year, the T-bird was shifting almost 93,000 units annually, in response to which General Motors could offer… nothing at all. In mid-1959 General Motors’ vice-president in charge of styling, Bill Mitchell, gave the job of creating a Thunderbird rival…

Just imagine how cool Tony Mitchell, the owner of this 1972 Ford Thunderbird Landau coupe, must have looked back in 1964. Aged just 20, he was already driving his first American car - a 1957 Chevrolet. “Until then, I’d had Ford V8 Pilots,” remembers Tony, “but a mate had this ’57 Chevy sedan I fancied, so we just did a swap. Another mate had a Buick, we all lived in Maidstone and the cars came from the local American airbase at West Malling. “After that, I had a Bonneville, but I don’t remember what year that Pontiac was. The gearbox went on it. In 1965 I got married and was driving a two-year-old Ford Zodiac.” The years went by and around 1983 the Mitchells bought a 1979 Cadillac Seville. “That…

November is when, as classic car fans, we really know that winter is well and truly here. Apart from the initial horror of seeing the gritters out for the first time, it’s also when the last big car show of the year takes place: the Lancaster Insurance Classic Motor Show, which is held at the NEC in Birmingham. This final event of the year bookends the car show season for most people, most of whom won’t attend much in the way of car shows or events until the following spring. The NEC is a great location in terms of being easy for most people to reach, either by car or train, and is even handy for Birmingham Airport, which is effectively on site. However, this year there were plenty of…

ICON is the Los Angeles-based entity that’s carved a name for itself in building recreations of classic 4x4s such as the FJ and BR (which pay homage to the original Toyota FJ40 Land Cruiser and 1966-77 Ford Bronco respectively). The company has since branched out into offering other models, such as its TR vintage trucks, plus its Reformer and Derelict lines. The latter takes an original, classic vehicle, one that often displays the effect of time and use on its coachwork and completely upgrades the chassis and running gear with modern components. The best of both worlds The end result is an infinitely usable, yet utterly distinctive vehicle that retains its exterior patina and character. Past projects in ICON’s Derelict line range from a 1951 DeSoto wagon (ICON’s first ever…

The Eagle was one of AMC’s moments of brilliance. Launched in 1979, this was America’s only four-wheel-drive passenger car, and is now considered to be the world’s first crossover vehicle. Who would have thought that cash-starved AMC could have spawned a whole new generation of cars? And what’s more, about 30 years ahead of the curve. Fact: The Eagle was the brainchild of AMC’s chief design engineer Roy Lunn, of Ford GT40 fame. It says “75 Rambler” on the windscreen, but it looks far more like a 1967 Rambler Rebel to me. The Rebel, which replaced the Rambler Classic and in turn was succeeded by the Matador, was built from 1967 to 1970. This one was photographed in an Arizona yard, and was lucky to survive a recent cull of…

On November 26, General Motors announced a major corporate restructuring which included eliminating 15% of its workforce as well as closing five manufacturing facilities – three vehicle assembly plants in North America, as well as two powertrain plants, plus two assembly operations in other parts of the world. In a statement, GM said the measures being taken are expected to increase annual adjusted automotive free cash flow by $6 billion by year-end 2020 on a run-rate basis. Prior to the announcement, it had been rumoured that GM’s Oshawa Assembly in Ontario, Canada was likely to be closed, not helped by the shifting of Camaro production to Lansing, Michigan, back in 2016. That being said, Oshawa is one of the most modern and flexible plants that GM operates, capable of producing…

At this year’s SEMA Show in Las Vegas, Oklahoma-based Classic Recreations announced that it will be offering a ‘new’ Boss Mustang in either 302 or 429 form. Built using genuine 1969-70 Ford fastback bodies or a reproduction shell, these, not surprisingly, incorporate a range of modern touches and are conceived as ‘continuation cars’ – not full-on restomods nor classic reproduction – and have been conceived with the blessing of Ford Motor Company. Headlining of course is the new Boss 429, which uses a genuine 385-series Ford big-block, V8-based crate engine, punched out to 546 cubic inches. Said to be rated at 815 horsepower, it’s teamed with a Tremec six-speed manual gearbox and sports modern suspension with tubular control arms and coilover shocks, plus large Wilwood brakes and modern rolling stock.…

FCA’s Mopar division made a big splash at SEMA this year by unveiling its new ‘Hellephant’ – a 426 cubic inch supercharged version of its crate Hemi engine. Rated at a staggering 1000 horsepower and 950ft-lb of torque, the engine was showcased in the 1968 Dodge ‘Super Charger’ – a restomod concept at SEMA. The Hellephant – the name is an amalgamation of Hellcat and Elephant (the original nickname for the 1960s Hemi) is able to achieve the ‘magic’ 1000hp mark via a beefed-up aluminium block that sports a 4.125 inch bore and 4.0-inch stroke, plus custom pistons, a high-lift camshaft and a high-efficiency supercharger. The motor is based on the engines used in the Mopar Dodge Challenger Drag Pak race vehicles that dominated the 2018 NHRA Factory Stock Showdown…

The Vintage Hot Rod Association has announced some big but unavoidable changes for the 2019 Pendine event for racers regarding safety regulations for the faster cars. These have been brought about mainly by the IOPD (International Organisation of Professional Drivers) in light of cars becoming faster at Pendine in recent years, so a review was deemed necessary. From now on, all cars capable of more than 90mph must have a roll bar fitted plus a harness and wrist restraints. Cars running over 100mph must be fitted with a roll cage and five-point harness (crossed at the rear), plus wrist restraints. The only cars exempted from these rules must conform to the MSA’s historic classification regarding major components being manufactured before December 31, 1961. Full rules and details of the exemption…

It was built by a roll-call of hot rodding legends, styled by a design deity and bankrolled by Ford at the height of its Total Performance programme. The otherworldly-looking creation pictured here also established a land speed record. So why isn’t it recalled with awe? The reason could be because it wasn’t powered by an internal combustion engine. There were no V8s here, nor jet propulsion for that matter. In their place was a decidedly unsexy bank of batteries. The appropriately-named Lead Wedge was a promotional exercise, one that was dreamed up in 1968 to showcase the Blue Oval’s Autolite division, which it had recently acquired. Responsibility for creating this improbable device fell to the department’s head, Danny Eames, a man steeped in high-performance cars having been involved in record-breaking…

Dear Classic American, I recently wrote to a popular, UK-based, general classic car magazine about why they chose to say in a recent feature the Iso Griffo suffers from “lingering snobbery” due to its American V8. Why is there this snobbery towards American cars or their engines? If anything, those outside of our scene are missing a trick, especially when considering, say, a starter classic. Regardless of their comparative pros and cons, instead of a black-bumpered MG GT, why not a mid-Sixties straight-six Ford Mustang for similar money? Excellent value, reliable and your cash is safe there. That’s possibly why that much-lauded sage Quentin Willson himself owns a V8 drop-top variant. Not that I view my own modest collection of so-called Yank tanks as investments, but judging by…

Dear Classic American, I have just been browsing through December’s Classic American and in particular the article on Goodwood Revival. I thought you might be interested to hear that we were invited to take part in the Smith and Williamson Best in Show competition on the Sunday of the Revival, and we were amazed to find that we won the People’s Choice award with our 1964 Ford F100 Styleside pick-up. Attached is our photo on the day – all dressed up with somewhere to go! The truck proved very popular as it does wherever we have taken it over the many years we have owned it. Marge Dowling Via email And you most definitely look the part, Marge! Great to see readers getting out and about with their…

Dear Classic American, Please see attached photos of two American cars my grandfather, of Stamford, Lincolnshire, owned: the Buick in the Fifties and the Chevy Impala, new in 1961. Could you feature these within your magazine? I believe the Chevy went up Bradford in the Seventies and was customised, but I also heard it may possibly have burnt out… I’m looking for any information on either of these cars. Tim Musgrove Stamford Lincolnshire Anyone seen Tim’s grandfather’s cars? The Chevy was licensed AFP 523 and the Buick was JLN 4… When we checked on the Government website for road tax and MoTs with the registration and make and model we drew a blank, but maybe readers know otherwise!…

There’s a moment when Hugh Lewis and I are discussing his beautiful ’64 Pontiac and he says: “It’s a nice place to be.” We carry on talking about all the various aspects of the car and its story, but that phrase seems to stick. Why? Probably because Hugh has just summed up what Personal Luxury cars were all about. That two-word description is one most of you will know. Ford coined the term ‘personal car’ for the Thunderbird’s launch in 1955. Quite who it was that tacked ‘luxury’ in there after ‘personal’ has been lost in time, but it may well have come directly from the launch of the ’58 Thunderbird, the bigger ‘square bird’ model that grew a back seat and quite a lot of extra glitz. “IT LOOKS…

Return of the Ramchargers When I found this Lindberg kit recently my first reaction was simply pleasure in seeing this popular model return. It did, however, present a small mystery about its whereabouts for the last 11 or so years, the box art being dated 2007. It appears to be new stock, still shrink-wrapped and in excellent condition, though not a recent release. I’ll explain. Lindberg is a long-established model kit manufacturer with roots back in the 1930s, when the company produced traditional wood and tissue aircraft kits. In the 1960s, the so-called ‘golden years’ of model car kits, they were not involved with the dealer ‘promos’ side of the hobby, as were AMT, MPC and Jo-Han. They produced simpler, easier to build models, many in the less popular 1:32…

MY BIGGEST FANS Last time in the Impala saga the new alloy rad had been delivered and Simon Browse at Arrow Vintage Cars (www.arrowvintagecars.co.uk) had trial-fitted it in the engine bay and then sent off to have a bespoke bracket built to house a pair of Spal electric cooling fans. Why did I want to opt for electric fans rather than the conventional crank-driven fan layout? Several reasons: one, my car didn’t come with its steel circular shroud, and two, I knew electric fans were more efficient than the old crank-driven type. Plus, it makes the engine bay look cleaner and allows better airflow around the outside of the engine block to further aid cooling. The radiator was sent down to Adam at T7 Design Thermal Solutions for them to…

ROB WOODALL, CONTRIBUTOR, CHESHIRE 1965 Ford Mustang convertible (x2) It’s not often the Project Pony Mustang gets to park between a couple of million-pound cars, but thanks to an invitation to join the South Cheshire Raiders 2018 Concours D’Esprit event at the annual Oulton Park Gold Cup, it did just that. America’s ‘good time’ car held its own though, not pretending to be anything but lots of fun. Quite something for a car once considered too far gone to restore. The concours was held on the Sunday and, as its name suggests, seeks to award the past history and ‘spirit’ of the cars, in preference to merely looking at overall condition. As many Classic American car owners already know, our cars have that ‘good time’ feel to them with their…

The winning car was Gary Sanders’ 1957 Dodge Custom Royal, one of seven finalists selected at heats held in 2018. The news was revealed at the Classic Motor Show at the NEC in Birmingham, where Gary accepted the trophy from representatives of sponsors Footman James and Kingstown Shipping, and Classic American editor Ben Klemenzson. There’s a full report on the show and the Car of the Year finals starting on page 65.…

Classic vehicle insurance specialist Footman James is to sponsor a new classic car show hosted by Vicki Butler-Henderson and Alex Riley. Launching in 2019, The Car Years will be sponsored by the Classic American advertiser, and more information will soon be available as to when, and on which channel, it will appear. A fresh take on the classic car scene, the premise is simple. Every episode will focus on a specific year of motoring. Vicki and Alex will both choose their favourite car of that year and then work to convince the expert panel of judges which is best. At the end of each show, one will be crowned the car of its year. Presenters Vicki and Alex are both excited by the possibilities the Footman…

We’re sure everyone has seen the recent news reports of the devastating forest fires in Northern California, and has every sympathy for those that have lost everything. For us car freaks though, there is the added sadness of seeing and recognising the rarity of some of the burned-out classics seen among the ashes. Down in Ventura County nearer LA, similar fires also destroyed the 30-car collection belonging to Gary and Diane Cerveny, including some highly desirable cars and, in particular, the unique Norman Timbs Special. This swoopy roadster was conceived and hand-built in the late Forties by engineer Norman Timbs, and it was featured on the cover of Motor Trend in 1949. Lost for many years, it was found and restored a few years ago and debuted at Pebble Beach…

Dear Classic American, I have been wondering how many of your readers own, or have owned, original, not converted, right-hand-drive American vehicles. It’s not uncommon to see new ones now, Ford Mustangs and so on, but how long have they been making them in America and selling them here? I have owned a right-hand-drive Plymouth Barracuda for many years, and have seen a few RHDs during that time. They were, after all, made for us Brits who love American cars, but drive a lot on British roads. If enough interest is shown, perhaps you could do a feature on them…? Now that would be fantastic! Dave Dingley Coventry West Midlands Without a doubt, the biggest influx of RHD American cars has to be the latest generation of Mustangs,…

The Ford Thunderbird debuted in 1955 as a two-seater ‘personal car’ and was Ford Motor Company’s answer to the Chevrolet Corvette. It easily outsold the crosstown rival (16,155 T-birds to just 674 Corvettes). Robert McNamara, who was one of the original ‘Whiz Kids’ (a group of 10 United States Army Air Force veterans that in 1947 had come to Ford in response to an offer to become part of the upper management) had become general manager of Ford. McNamara was not a ‘car guy’; however, he knew the important numbers that went with the car business. While the Thunderbird, as Ford’s flagship car, did wonders in helping provide an exciting way to get people into the dealership showrooms, its sales were not really enough to make any significant profit from.…

The Crime Scene Investigation (CSI) TV series have to be some of the most successful procedural, forensics crime dramas ever. Starting with the Las Vegas-based series in 2000, similar ones followed, the second being based in Miami, Florida. Running from 2002 until 2012 and quoted as one of the world’s most popular TV series ever, it regularly featured 2003 Ford Crown Victoria police cars of the fictional Miami-Dade force. Prolific die-cast manufacturer Greenlight Collectibles has produced an excellent 1:43 scale rendition of this iconic cop car, with its primarily white paint and distinctive green graphics. Attached to a black plinth with a very sturdy clear plastic cover, the outer packaging features photos of the cast of this long-running show. The car within is well proportioned and has opening doors, bonnet…

CALLING ALL CHECKER AND PACKARD OWNERS! It seems that, on past evidence, Checker Taxi owners might be a little shy about bringing their vehicles to American car rallies in Britain, writes John Bath. Until 2018 (and having attended numerous such rallies since the early 1990s) I had never seen one at any meet over here, though a number have been imported, and it is true that when associated with New York particularly, Checkers are just as iconic as, say, a 1959 Cadillac. Not all Checker Taxis were yellow either, as they were in New York – for instance, Chicago’s version was usually an attractive combination of cream and green. There was also a ‘civilian’ or non-taxi version too, latterly called the Marathon, though this model sold in much smaller numbers.…

Vendor: Tom Hill, Welwyn, Hertfordshire Telephone: 07886 928789 Price: £69,950 This month’s Drive-Buy is something a bit different from the norm and will definitely appeal to enthusiasts of modified American classics. Indeed, this 1968 Dodge Charger Drive-Buy graced the pages of Classic American magazine back in 2013. The car was totally restored and built to Resto Mod Pro Touring by its owner of 15 years, Tom Hill. The car looks as mint and fresh today as it did when we featured it. The bodywork remains in superb condition, having undergone a complete bare metal repaint by Dickermill Coachworks in Hertford, with close attention to detail ensuring that all panel fitment was of the highest standard. The colour is actually a modern Audi RS4 Red. The underside of the car is…